Chapter 18

Because Taker figured she might disappear if he went down to the front desk, he decided he would get management first thing in the morning with her right beside him. This shit had to stop and how in the hell could hotels as expensive and supposedly with 'the best security for their patrons' could let this happen, repeatedly? Grunting, he peeled off his shirt and threw it on top of a chair, his muscles flexing with every movement.

"You want to use the bathroom for a shower or something?" Taker offered cordially, finally realizing that she was staying the night with him and there was no couch.

A few chairs, a credenza, dresser and a coffee table, but no couch. Luckily for her that was a large bed because Taker had no intention of sleeping on floor and he wasn't allowing her to sleep on the floor either. He would, however, refrain from sleeping naked as was his custom, pretty sure he had some black pajama bottoms in the bottom of his bag. Now that he was calming down, Taker was beginning to realize that he was starving and she looked like she was ready to sleep. Taker dropped down on the edge of the bed, pulling the hotel's menu towards him, eyeballing it before looking over at her. Noting that she had removed her nylons, his green eyes skimmed her tanned smooth legs for a moment.

"Hungry?"

"No not really." Her appetite was ruined due to this secret admirer situation. Rajani could feel his eyes on her legs, but didn't point it out, simply standing up. "And yeah, I do need a shower." Rajani was already grabbing her bag while he mulled over the menu, sighing when he stopped her before she could walk past him, staring down into his green eyes. "If you have to order me something, just make it a salad. I honestly don't think I can hold anything else down right now."

Shaking his head, Taker waited until she was in the bathroom before placing his order, being nice and ordering her that salad, with several types of dressing on the side. He had no idea what she liked and then added a plain chicken breast meal for himself. Only he made sure to triple the order on that. Taker also took the opportunity to start rifling around in his bag, after placing the order, setting clothes and other things aside before finally locating those bottoms and remembered why he rarely wore them. The drawstring had come out months ago so now they settled rather lowly on his hips and constantly needed pulled up. Well…she'd have to deal with him either constantly hitching them up or showing off his ass crack...unless of course she had no objections to him walking around nude. A wicked smile flickered across his lips at the thought as Taker began shedding the rest of his clothes.

Rajani took her time in the shower, letting the water wash away the day's events, feeling completely exhausted. She never thought she'd end up staying with Taker, let alone sleeping in the same bed with him, after that grueling drive, but here she was. Lathering up her hair, Rajani suddenly turned her thoughts to John and felt her eyes close, going over what Taker said earlier. Maybe accepting John's invite to dinner wouldn't be a bad idea. Why was she putting her happiness aside for her brother anyway? If Dwayne couldn't understand and separate business from personal, then that was his problem. Rajani rinsed her hair out and finished up before stepping out, wrapping herself in a towel and wiped the steam off the mirror. Frowning, Rajani ran her fingertips over the deep bruises on her neck and knew what she had to do. She would have to report it to Stephanie. John and Taker had both been right. Putting the cream on them, Rajani quickly dressed in a pair of fleece baby blue pajama pants with a matching spaghetti strapped top. A brush of her teeth and hair later, Rajani finally emerged.

Taker was across the length of the room with long measured strides, his bottoms hanging low enough on his hips to almost be indecent, brushing his hair while he did so. When she came out, he merely nodded at her, then stopped and turned to look at her. Obviously, he noted the pajamas and was reminded of that night they had eaten together. She had been wearing a silk robe right after having a shower. That line of thought was almost immediately discarded as Taker studied the bruises, walking over to get a really good look at them.

"You applyin' something to them?" He finally asked gently.

"Yeah, a cream that's supposed to make them disappear faster." Rajani replied softly, knowing there was no reason to cover them up.

The last time they were like this, Taker had come to her room to talk to her about her blow-up. Maybe that's why he wanted to help her. Ever since that night, it was almost as if she saw Taker on a daily basis. Before that, Rajani maybe saw him twice a month, if that. So why the sudden interest in helping her? It was a little suspicious, Rajani admitted only to herself, but for some strange reason a part of her did trust Taker. She winced slightly when he pressed against the bruising, knowing he was checking to see how deep they'd gone and if the swelling had gone down at all.

"I popped some more ibuprofen too."

"You got lucky." Taker said after a moment, stopping with the pressing and simply ran his fingertips along the bruises. "He could have easily broken something." Or her, Kane could have easily broken her, just snapped her like a twig. Especially if Rajani had mouthed off to him the way she liked to do to Cena on occasion, word did get around. "How did it start? The night he did this, I know you said you mouthed off to him, but...why were you talkin' to him to begin with?"

"He stopped me from leaving the arena, asked why I was leaving so soon and if I knew anything about who knocked you out. Then...he asked if he scared me and I said of course not...to both questions. I told him to go to Stephanie's office because you were there and wished him a good night. He wouldn't let me leave though..." Rajani shivered, rubbing the back of her neck and knew she had been incredibly lucky to escape with just a bruised neck. "I asked him what he wanted and he said to talk. He asked why I never talked to him and pointed out that I talk to everyone else except him. Then he asked me if I liked him..." Rajani could still see the look in Kane's eyes, the danger and coldness that always put her on alert whenever she was around him. "I simply told him I didn't know how to answer that question because I don't know him. Then I demanded what this was really about because he didn't stop me just to talk. I'm not stupid or naive, I knew there was a deeper reasoning behind it. I told him I didn't peg him for the talking type and he responded by removing his mask, saying something about seeing the persona doesn't mean the man doesn't like to talk every now and then...something like that. I told him flat out that he didn't fool me and I had enough problems in my life and didn't need to deal with his bipolar ways. It was stupid, but he was annoying me by not letting me leave. So I did something even dumber, I demanded him to come clean about attacking Beth since he wanted to talk so badly. I went to walk away and he..." She had to take another deep breath, feeling her knees shaking slightly and felt Taker pull her over to sit on the bed before they collapsed beneath her. "He told me to be more specific because he's hurt a lot of people over the years. I went to walk away again and he shoved me against the wall, using his forearm to pin me to where I couldn't move or barely breathe. I tried kneeing him and of course that didn't work, the asshole wears a cup apparently." She snorted, raking a hand through her wet hair. "He said the next time he made an effort to be nice to me that he suggests I play nice back..." She touched her neck, remembering his disgusting hot breath against it and trembled, swallowing hard. "I told him to let me go and that I refused to play nice with anyone who hurts people I care about. I fought him as much as I could and tried getting away, but he was too strong...I told him if he knew what was good for him, he'd let me go and he demanded to know why. I didn't tell him obviously. He said he never hurt someone I care about and that I need to check my facts before throwing them at people who aren't operating at full mental capacity, that I'd live longer. He released me, I told him I knew the truth about him hurting Beth and demanded him to stay away from me before running out of the arena." Rajani finished and refused to look up at Taker, her hands clasped so tightly in her lap, her knuckles were turning ghostly white. "I was stupid, I should've just kept my mouth shut."

All things considered Rajani probably should have just kept her mouth shut, but it sounded like Kane had given her multiple openings to fire off at the mouth. For a brief moment, Taker wished he had been there to see it. Like he had already said, this woman had brass balls. He also didn't think it would matter to Kane who her brother was, not in the sense of having his ass kicked. Though it might have intrigued him on several other points. Taker really hoped that she didn't tell anyone else about that.

"You're ballsy woman." Taker complimented finally, realizing that today in the truck, driving with Kane right there, must have been seriously nerve-wracking for her. "Shit Jani, if I'd of known...I'd of booted his ass out earlier right into traffic."

"I believe you would."

That got a small smile out of Rajani and she felt better that someone other than her and Kane knew about what transpired last night. Did all of that really happen the previous night? It was hard to believe, everything seemed to be happening so fast, yet slow at the same time.

"I've always spoke my mind and something tells me that even if I kept silent he still would've done this." She touched her throat again, wishing it wasn't so tender. "He wanted to talk though, so I gave him a suggestion on what to talk about." Rajani shrugged, jumping slightly when a knock sounded at the door and looked up at Taker worriedly.

"Room service." He said, heading to the door, mentally agreeing with her that Kane probably would have done it regardless.

It all made sense now.

Kane had noted there was interest between John and Rajani, at least on John's side, and was slowly but surely insinuating himself in the mix, probably all just to mess with Cena's mind. Taker had no idea how Rajani felt about the boy, honestly not caring. He opened the door, eyeballing the two trays the bellhop was carrying and raised the lids on both. No longer trusting anything, Taker nodded when he seen it was exactly what he ordered. He let the man inside to set them down on the table, pulling out a crisp bill from his wallet, which he had left on top of his bag, for a tip.

"I ordered you a salad...and a lot of dressin'."

Rajani smiled tentatively, waiting for the bellhop to leave. "Thanks, I like French dressing." She informed him before taking her salad and sat on the huge bed Indian style, feeling a little better and therefore her appetite had grown.

Rajani couldn't help noticing the small pieces of grilled chicken spread on the salad and eyeballed Taker, simply shaking her head. The man was very slick indeed. Not saying anything, Rajani poured the dressing on her salad and began eating while Taker dug into his own plate, each in their own thoughts. The woman didn't honestly think he was going to let her just eat some lettuce and cucumbers or something, did she? So yes, Taker had ordered the grilled chicken salad, figuring some protein wouldn't go amiss. He then examined his rather hefty plate before sitting down in the chair not currently occupied by his bag, balancing the plate carefully on his knee.

"Want one of these?" Taker asked, gesturing with his fork to one of the three chicken breasts, not surprised when she simply shook her head. "If you change your mind..." He shrugged, lapsing into silence as he ate, his mind going a mile a minute.

As Rajani ate, all she could think about was John Cena. Why the hell couldn't she just push him in the far recesses of her mind like before? She knew why. Because he dropped the L bomb on her and hadn't mentioned it since. Granted, he had called her a prostitute and a bitch in heat, but...Rajani hadn't been kind to him either. It was a love/hate thing between them. He got on her nerves and made her want to jump his bones at the same time. Something no other man had been able to do, to make her feel this way, this deeply and strongly. She didn't understand it, but everything was starting to come full circle and into focus for her. John had somehow wormed his way into her mind and heart, Rajani was officially in hell.

John had to call a tow truck to come haul the car to an approved place designated by the rental company. Then he got the fun job of explaining that he had no idea who had slashed his tires to the rental company and was really glad the extra 'cover-it-all' insurance option was one he had taken, even though he had never needed it before. By the time he finally made it to the hotel, he was ready to just drop down, fully clothed into bed and call it a damn week.

"What the..."

He groaned when he let himself into the room, somehow not surprised to find all the furniture...upside down. Well, John was surprised that it was upside down, he wasn't surprised that someone was still continuing to screw with him. Closing the door behind him, he just shook his head and simply went to fix the bed. Screw everything else, the hotel could deal with it since they were inept anyway.